The concept of a washing machine having a tub for holding a body of water and soiled laundry therein is known in the art. Typically, during a laundry cycle one dispenses a detergent such as a laundry detergent into the body of water where an agitator swishes the water and soiled laundry back and forth to remove the soil from soiled laundry. Sometimes a disinfectant, such as bleach may be dispensed into the water to disinfect the laundry during the laundry cycle. However, a disadvantage of the use a disinfectant such as bleach is that it may cause damage to the laundry and can injure a person if not handled properly.
Another method of both cleaning and disinfecting during a laundry cycle uses a specialized washing machine for both cleaning and sanitizing laundry. The specialized washing machine, which is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,322,065, instead of using a bleach to disinfect, uses a detergent and colloidal silver to wash and disinfect a batch of soiled laundry. The specialized washing machine includes a tub to hold the water and the soiled laundry as well as two silver plates to generate colloidal silver. A voltage, which is applied to the plates, produces the appropriate concentration of colloidal silver in the washing machine with the colloidal silver acting as a disinfectant while the detergent removes the soil from the laundry. The insitu generation of colloidal silver in the washing machine allows the laundry to be both cleaned and disinfected at the same time. However, such systems are both complex and costly since the washing machine requires a set of electrodes as well as a system for controlling the voltage to the electrodes in order to generate sufficient colloidal silver to disinfect the laundry since a sufficient level of silver ions must be generated in the water in order to disinfect the laundry during the laundry cycle.
Another type of well-known washing machine is the dishwasher which typically contains racks for holding soiled dishes while a dishwasher detergent, which is dissolved in wash water, is sprayed on the dishes to remove any residue on the dishes. In some cases one may want to also sterilize or disinfect the dishes. One way of sterilizing or disinfecting is to send the dishes through a high temperature cycle that is sufficient to kill harmful organisms, however, such systems may have adverse effects on the dishes. In other systems a disinfectant may be added to the dishwasher detergent.
The above concepts of sanitizing and disinfectant an article during a washing cycle requires either a special washing machine or the use of disinfectants or heat that may damage the articles whereas the invention described herein comprise a detergent product that can be safely used in a conventional washing machine or dishwasher. While heavy metals such as silver are known as disinfectants unfortunately one of the disadvantages of using a chemical source of silver ions is that the level of available silver ions for disinfecting the articles may be limited by the solubility of silver in the wash water thus creating conditions wherein the articles are not sufficiently disinfected or sanitized since insufficient silver ions are present to sanitized or disinfect the articles.